Dancing With Velvet

by Judy Nickles

  Mr. Thomas lifted one hand as if to wave away her offer. “Mary came in and posted the accounts,” he said. “Everything’s current.”

  “She didn’t have to do that. Please tell her I appreciate it.”

  “She likes having something to do outside the house, now that the girls are grown and gone.”

  Celeste sat down and uncovered the adding machine. I’m so tired of thinking about all this. I need to work and forget.

  “Miss Riley.”

  “Yes, sir?”

  “I hope things will be better for you now.”

  “Yes, sir, I hope so, too.”

  ****

  Kent didn’t call, but he showed up at the Canteen on Saturday. Celeste thought his face looked drawn and a little pale.

  “Does your shoulder still hurt a lot?”

  “Not as much. The medic at the field said I’d have to wear the sling another three or four weeks. It’s driving me nuts.” With his hand on the small of her back, he urged her toward the table where they always sat. “Did you have a lot to do when you went back to work?”

  “Mr. Thomas’s wife had kept things caught up.” She wondered if she should tell him what Mr. Thomas had said about Claudia and decided it would serve no purpose.

  “Major Beeman is doing what he can to get me overseas by summer.”

  “Does your mother know?”

  “I haven’t talked to her but once since the accident. She chewed me up and spit me out.”

  “Because of Claudia.”

  “Right.”

  “Does she know about me?”

  “Sort of. Neil knows.”

  “Would she like anybody you went with?”

  “Probably not. When Dad died, she just sort of decided I was the man of the family and always would be.”

  “You were only fourteen.”

  “I grew up fast.”

  “Coralee was only twelve when Mamma died, but she’d been taking care of me for a while before that, ever since Mamma got sick.”

  “But she didn’t have any trouble breaking free, so to speak. Marrying Ben and moving to Sterling City.”

  “Ben’s parents offered to take me, too, but Daddy wouldn’t let me go.”

  “You told me that. Why?”

  Celeste shook her head as if to say she didn’t know, even though she did.

  “Velvet, when the war’s over, we need to get out of here. I mean as far away as we can. You can visit your sister whenever you want to, but we need a fresh start away from here.”

  “San Angelo’s all I’ve ever known.”

  “I was born and raised in Brownwood, but that doesn’t mean I have to live and die there.” As he bit off the words, she caught a flash of the anger she’d seen when he confronted her father. She wondered what had sparked his anger now, though at the same time she realized it wasn’t directed at her.

  A young soldier approached their table. “Can I borrow your girl?” he asked Kent with a grin. “Promise not to move in on you.”

  Kent nodded. “Sure, go ahead. I’m grounded, as you can see.”

  When she came back to the table, Celeste said, “He’s just eighteen. He has a girl back home in Kansas.”

  Kent’s mouth twisted. “I hope he makes it to nineteen.”

  ****

  After church on Sunday, they ate at the little café on Chadbourne where they’d shared their first lunch. Then they walked to the St. Angelus and snuck up to the empty Roof Garden, where they sat on the floor in a corner, holding each other hungrily and sharing kisses that grew more passionate by the minute.

  “Do they still have dances up here?” Kent asked when they came up for air.

  “I think so.”

  “We need to go to one when I get out of this contraption. You can wear your blue velvet dress.”

  “Veda will know if there’s a Valentine dance. We could go to that.”

  Kent found her mouth again. “I’ve missed this, Velvet.”

  I’ve missed it, too, but I wish I could stop thinking about you and Claudia.

  As if he’d read her mind, he pulled back. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing’s wrong.”

  “You’re thinking about Claudia and me, aren’t you?”

  She dropped her eyes. “I guess I do sometimes.”

  “Look, Velvet, I’m twenty-seven years old. I haven’t lived in a monastery.”

  “You wouldn’t look very good in a long brown robe with your head shaved,” she said, trying to lighten the mood.

  He straightened, letting his arm fall away from her shoulders. “I’m not going to do anything you don’t want me to, but you need to grow up.”

  “I’m sorry, Kent.”

  He blew out his breath as if it were his last. ”Yeah, me, too. Come on, I’ll walk you home.”

  “Now?”

  “Why not? We can sit in Mrs. Clay’s parlor and play checkers or something.”

  “Don’t be mean to me.”

  “I’m not being mean, Velvet. I’m being realistic. You’re who you are, and I guess that’s part of why I love you.”

  ****

  Coralee called on Monday night to say that she and Barbara would be staying at the house in San Angelo for at least a week. “I’m going to get rid of Daddy’s stuff. The house is pretty clean. I guess he hired someone to come in after you left.”

  “What are you going to do about the house?”

  “That’s the other thing I want to talk to you about. The lawyer is filing Daddy’s will for probate. He left everything to me.”

  “You’re his daughter, and I’m not.”

  “Well, you know I’m going to split everything right down the middle with you.”

  “You don’t have to do that, Sister.”

  “And there’s something else, too. We’ve all talked about it and we think you should move out of that little room and back into the house. It’s paid for, and there’s money invested to pay the taxes and enough in savings to pay the water, gas, and electricity for a couple of years. By then, you may be married and gone, and we can decide what to do with the house. But it doesn’t need to sit empty ’til then.”

  Celeste caught her breath as the rooms on Spaulding Street flashed through her mind like a kaleidoscope. Home to her own room, the sunny kitchen, a porch to sit on in warm weather, something outside the windows besides an alley full of trash cans. “Oh, Sister, do you mean it?”

  “You know I do. That way, Ben and Barbara and I will have a place to visit you whenever we want to.”

  Excitement all but choked her. “Oh, Sister. Oh, Sister.”

  “Then you’ll do it?”

  “I’ll start packing up right now. I’ll help you clean out everything.”

  “I’ll pick you up at the store when you get off work at noon on Saturday. Be sure to tell Mrs. Clay right away. She won’t have any trouble renting the room. Not with a war on and two bases in town.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  “I think it’s the right thing to do,” Kent said when he called later. “You’ll be a lot happier at home.”

  “A lot cozier, certainly, and it’ll really be home now.”

  “You might even rent out the second bedroom for some extra money and the company.”

  “I thought of that.”

  “I’m glad for you, Velvet.”

  “Coralee’s picking me up at noon on Saturday, so I won’t be at the Canteen. You can come to the house if you want to.”

  “I’m not much use with one arm, but maybe I can find something to do to help.”

  “Just be there, Kent. That’s all I need.”

  ****

  Kent made himself useful by entertaining Barbara until Coralee put her to bed at eight. “I’m going to send all the clothes to the Salvation Army,” she said. “There’s not much else to dispose of.”

  “Where are Mamma’s things?” Celeste asked.

  “When I married and moved out, I took what I could sneak past Daddy. Personal stuff like je
welry, and some scarves and a few keepsakes. The jewelry is just dime store stuff, but that’s what she liked. I left the leprechauns in your room because you always loved them. The rest is in the attic, unless he got rid of it.”

  “Do you want to look?” Kent asked.

  Celeste shook her head. “It’s too cold up there now. Maybe later.” She curled up on the yellow-and-white-flowered settee and looked around. “I’m going to use this room every single night. Do you think the radio still works?”

  Kent went over to the wooden table radio and turned it on. When he twirled the dial, music replaced static. “It’s an Emerson. They make good stuff.”

  “That’s Glenn Miller’s ‘Moonlight Serenade,’ ” Coralee said. “I heard he joined the army and got a band together to play for the soldiers.”

  Celeste closed her eyes. “I’m going to sit here every night and listen to the radio. Veda and Marilyn will visit, too.”

  “You should, baby girl.” Coralee leaned over the back of the settee to hug her sister. “You just do anything you want to do, and I’m going to be so happy thinking about you doing it.”

  ****

  “I’m not going to take advantage of you living here alone,” Kent said as they walked out on the porch when Perry honked.

  “You’re welcome here, Kent. You know that.”

  “I do want to check all the door locks next time I’m here. Make sure they’re good ones. With so many new people in town because of the bases, it’s a good idea to lock up pretty tight when you’re gone and especially when you’re home alone at night.”

  “All right.”

  He put his good arm around her. “Will you be at church tomorrow?”

  “If I’m not, come here afterward. Coralee and I’ll have something for lunch.”

  “You sure?”

  “I’m sure.”

  He brushed her lips so lightly that she hardly felt his kiss. “Night, Velvet. Sweet dreams in your own bed tonight.”

  ****

  The first of the week, Coralee set the boxes of August Riley’s clothes on the porch and went inside and shut the door like she was closing a finished book. When Celeste said as much, her sister laughed. “I guess I am. In some ways, I need to put all this behind me as much as you do.”

  Sometime during the day, the Salvation Army sent a truck for the boxes. “Get the laundry to pick up all the sheets and things we took off the bed,” Coralee said to Celeste. “Does that old machine on the back porch still work?”

  “I used it sometimes. Daddy sent his things to Model Laundry downtown.”

  “I wish you had a car. How will you get groceries home?”

  “M System used to deliver the big things, and I picked up bread and milk at a little place up on Main Street sometimes.”

  “Daddy just took it for granted you’d manage and never offered to help.”

  “It’s done, Sister.”

  “Maybe Kent can help you when he has two good arms again.”

  “He’s trying to get overseas duty. His CO promised him.”

  “How do you feel about that?”

  “I want him to be happy.”

  “Just how serious are things between the two of you? I know I’ve asked before, but you’ve sort of hedged your answers.”

  “We’ve talked about getting married after the war.”

  “After.”

  “I want to be sure, Sister. I want to be married forever.”

  “Then be sure, baby girl. Making a quick decision in the middle of a war isn’t the thing to do. A couple of the high school girls in Sterling City have run off and married, and I hear one already has a baby on the way. She could end up raising it by herself.”

  “I’m not going to do that.”

  ****

  By the end of January, Celeste felt at home in a way she’d never experienced before. She opened the drapes in the parlor every morning and turned on all the lamps there at night. Veda said she’d keep her ears open for anyone who might want to rent the extra bedroom, but Celeste wasn’t sure she was in any hurry to share her nest.

  For the first week, she woke a few times in the night and thought she heard August Riley stumbling around in the hall, but even that ended. She was alone, in her own home, and enjoying every moment of her independence. Marilyn and Veda dropped in with or without an invitation. More often than not, they came home with Celeste to spend the night after Canteen duty.

  “I love it,” she told Coralee during one of her sister’s regular phone calls. “I love having a real home where I can invite my friends.”

  “Maybe I shouldn’t ask, but…”

  “Kent doesn’t come over. I meet him at the Canteen on Saturdays and at church on Sundays. He walks me home, but Veda and Marilyn are usually with me, too. Then his friend Perry picks him up.”

  “It’s none of my business.”

  “Sure it is, Sister.”

  “I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”

  “Kent wouldn’t hurt me.” Not intentionally, but he’d take what he wanted if I’d let him. Maybe all men are that way. Lord knows, I’ve had little enough experience with them to know for sure.

  “Just enjoy your new life, baby girl. You’ve had it coming for a long time.”

  ****

  Kent bought Celeste a corsage of red roses for the Valentine dance at the Roof Garden. With his arm finally free from the sling, he could hold her close in her blue velvet dress. They rode with Perry and his wife Sue, so Kent kissed her goodnight on the porch and didn’t move to come in. She invited them all for lunch on Sunday. “I had enough ration points for a nice roast, and I’ll make yeast rolls, too.” She liked feeling part of a couple while they spent the afternoon in the parlor working a jigsaw puzzle and listening to the radio. When Kent had to leave with Perry, Celeste balanced disappointment with relief. We don’t need to be alone here in the house. Mrs. Aikman next door isn’t a gossip, but she knows everything that goes on here, and it’s not a bad idea to have someone looking out for me. Besides, when Kent and I get too cozy, we always end up in an argument about how much is too much.

  In March, Perry got his orders for overseas duty and took Sue back to Fort Worth to live with her parents. Kent bought his car and gave it to Celeste. “I can’t take this,” she protested, shocked at the size of his gift.

  “You need it more than I do. I can get the bus in to the Canteen and again on Sundays, and you can drive me back to the field on Sunday nights if you want to.”

  The new freedom of being able to come and go as she pleased gave her a heady feeling, and she liked the extra time with Kent when she drove him back to Concho Field on weekends.

  They didn’t talk about Claudia or his mother, and he didn’t do more than hold her hand and kiss her goodnight. They spent most of their time just talking, something Celeste said they needed to do. She didn’t think Kent really agreed, but he didn’t argue with her.

  He got his orders in May and asked her to drive to Brownwood with him to meet his mother and brother. “I have to admit I’m not anxious to meet your mother,” she said. “Not after everything you’ve said.”

  “I’m not anxious for you to meet her, either, but it’s got to be done.”

  “For the sake of good manners.”

  “That, and just so she can’t say I snuck around behind her back.”

  “What if she doesn’t like me?”

  “She probably won’t, but it doesn’t matter. I love you, Velvet. And you’ll like Neil and Kay. I worry that they’re not married yet because of Mother, and I plan to talk to him about it while I’m home.”

  “Will it do any good?”

  “I hope so.” He caught her hand and squeezed it. “Things are going to work out for us, Velvet. We’ve got to keep believing that.”

  ****

  “Don’t go if you’re going to feel uncomfortable,” Coralee counseled. “I just wish you were going to have a mother-in-law like Pearl.”

  “I don’t think there’s anyon
e else like Pearl.”

  “She’s one in a million. That’s what Big Ben always says. She’s started a hope chest for you, by the way.”

  “For me?”

  “Right alongside Barbara’s. When is Kent leaving for good?”

  “The end of June, he thinks.”

  “And you’re still going to wait. I mean, wait for everything.”

  “He doesn’t want to, but maybe men don’t see anything wrong with it.”

  “They do if they’re the right kind.”

  “Well, I’m waiting, Sister, and like you said, a hurry-up wedding in the middle of a war isn’t a good idea, not for me.”

  “Well, you’re sensible, baby girl. You stick to your guns. When he comes home again, if you’re sure you want to marry him, you’ll have the biggest wedding First Christian Church has seen in years.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Coldly polite were the words Celeste used to describe Kent’s mother to Coralee. “She looked me over like I was something he’d found on the street somewhere. Not just on the street, but in an alley maybe. A garbage can. At meals, she talked to Kent and Neil and ignored me.”

  “Doesn’t sound promising, baby girl.”

  “Oh, Kent and I spent most of our time out of the house. His mother didn’t like that either, of course. Neil’s girlfriend Kay is nice. Neil’s determined to marry her, but she put her foot down about living in the house with his mother.”

  “I don’t blame her.”

  “I wouldn’t do it either.”

  “Did Kent tell her that the two of you are engaged?”

  “We’re not exactly engaged. We have an understanding, that’s all.”

  “You’re planning to get married, so you’re engaged.”

  Celeste didn’t tell her sister about the humiliating scene on their last morning in Brownwood when Mrs. Peters stormed up the walk and demanded money from Kent to support Claudia’s little boy. “You owe it to her,” the stringy-haired woman insisted. “You’re the reason she’s not here to take care of him.”

  “She didn’t take care of him anyway,” Kent retorted. “She left him with you from the time he was a baby. And I’m not going to be responsible for him, because he’s not mine.”

  Celeste, trying to make herself invisible, felt sorry for Claudia’s mother, despite the fact she appeared as cheap as Claudia had, though in a tattered sort of way. I hope they get enough to eat. Especially the little boy.